ECN-II Process? Seattle Filmworks?

[Silvercall]

Last week, as I was waiting for my car to get fixed up at the mechanic's, I decided to pop my head in the nearby antique stores. In one of them I found and purchased a Canon Canonet QL19 G-III. The owner of the shop was asking $40 but I was able to negotiate it down to $25 as I also purchased a small black and chrome tripod that had caught my eye.

Within the camera was a roll of Seattle Filmworks ASA 200 film. The marking on the canister state that it contains "Eastman Motion picture film" and "Process ECN-II". I brought the foll to my local camera store to get it developed, but they said that the don't do ECN-II processing and that I may have to send it to Seattle Filmworks... IF they were still in business. After doing some online research, I've discovered that Seattle Filmworks is no longer in business. That said, it sound like the company had an interesting history.

LONG STORY SHORT.... does anyone know where I can get this roll developed? I am in Vancouver, BC Canada , so somewhere local or at least in Canada would be preferable. Also, I'd rather not spend an arm and a leg just to find out there is nothing on the film. The roll is sitting on my desk, and every time I look at it, I wonder what masterpieces may be on there 😉

Thanks in advance

 

[biomed]

There a number of companies that repackaged this movie film in 35mm cassettes. The deal was that they would process the film and send you a fresh roll. You might try Rocky Mountain Film Lab.

 

[Silvercall]

Thanks for the link!

 

[biomed]

You are welcome. Most of the film of this type used in the past was Eastman 5247 or 5294. The films that use the ECN-II process were used for shooting movies. These are color negative type films. The films viewed in theaters were positive contact prints of the color negative master. I believe that the ECN-II process is still used in the movie industry. Companies like Seattle Film Works offered processing with color prints and/or contact printed slides. You may find a lab that is cheaper than Rocky Mountain. Their turn around time is very long ( 6 - 12 months). They probably wait to have enough of this film to make it worth their while.
Mike

 

[kknox]

Could you soup it like you do a roll of B&W. I know you would not see any color?

 

[MrFujicaman]

Back in the 1970's, there were 2 major types of ECN-II film sold-5254 and the later 5247. I think 5297 is a 1980's version of this type of film.

Seattle Film Works and Dale Labs and 3-4 others sold the stuff and processed it-the deal generally was that you got slides and negs back from the lab and a "free" roll of replacement film. This film was loaded from short ends of movie film the labs bought from Hollywood film makers.

It took a modified form of C-41 processing called ECN-II. The big differance was that the 52 family films had a black remjet backing to cut down on friction in the magazines on the movie cameras. The problem is that it takes a special step to remove the backing and that if you try to run it thru a standard C-41 processor, the backing comes off and clogs up the machine big time. No standard lab will touch this stuff.

As far as I know, Rocky Mountain is the only lab left that will touch this stuff-and they take forever and it's very expensive. The film fades like crazy in storage unless it's kept in a freezer once it's processed. It's very hard to make prints from as the color balance is very hard to adjust for.

My advice is to throw the film in the trash...the last time I saw any of this film sold was back around 1985 !

 

[Silvercall]

Lol, yeah, I think I will never know whats on this roll of film. It's the 5297 type. Thanks for the history lesson. I've never heard of this type of film, but it was interesting looking up info about it and hearing abit about its past.

 

[zuiko85]

Back in the early 80's I received unsolicited offers from them. The package contained a "free" roll of their film. Of course they were the only ones who could process it, at whatever price the market would tolerate. I chucked it in the garbage.

 

[Dave Jenkins]

Dale Laboratories is still in business. You might contact them to see if they will process your film.

http://www.dalelabs.com/iprints_welcome.html#

 

[robklurfield]

I have an unprocessed roll of 5247 laying around from Seattle Film Works. Guessing I shot perhaps 15 years ago.